Harry Potter works his magic

September 20 2002By Jason Steger

In the world of Harry Potter, there is no more evil presence than Lord Voldemort. But to the millions of Potter fans around the world, Nancy Stouffer would probably push him pretty close for the title.

She's the American writer who accused Joanne Rowling, creator of the boy wizard, of stealing her ideas. But yesterday she probably felt in need of borrowing his "invisibility cloak" after a New York court dismissed her plagiarism suit with a force worthy of Potter's massive friend Hagrid.

Stouffer accused Rowling, her US publisher, Scholastic, and the Harry Potter film company Warner Bros of eight counts of trademark infringement in March, 2000. She said Rowling had lifted the term "muggles" to describe people without magical qualities from her book The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and claimed that names had been stolen from her book Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lily.

Stouffer's suit was eventually combined with one from November, 1999, in which Scholastic and Warner Bros called for a judicial declaration that the Potter books had not infringed Stouffer's copyright.

Yesterday, in New York, US District Judge Allen Schwartz ruled that "publication, distribution and exploitation of the Harry Potter books does not violate any of Stouffer's intellectual property right". He said the Pennsylvania-based author had lied to the court, doctored evidence and "engaged in a pattern of intentional bad-faith conduct". ");document.write("

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He fined her $US50,000 ($91,000) and ordered her to stop "making false representations to third parties indicating that she owns all rights in the 'Muggle' and 'Muggles' trademarks and copyrights" or that Rowling had violated those rights.

In court documents, Rowling described the allegations as "ludicrous". Her agent said she was "thrilled to have been vindicated so clearly".

The four Harry Potter books have combined sales of about 170 million around the world, with more than 4.5 million in Australia. Paul Donovan, sales and marketing director of Allen & Unwin, which distributes the books in Australia, told The Age the ruling was "great news and not unexpected".

Potter fans will now be hoping that with the pressure of the case lifted, Rowling will be able to concentrate on finishing her delayed fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Earlier this week, Bloomsbury, her UK and Australian publisher, confirmed that it would not be out this year.

"In a sense, if we have a publishing date early next year, we deliver the children of Australia a second Christmas," Mr Donovan said. Of course, if Rowling had the abilities of her character all she would have to do is wave her magic wand...